Love Spoons

The tradition of giving a spoon to one's lover is very old. The
Welsh and
Norwegians have museums of old carved wooden spoons which young men
would
create as presents for the young ladies which they were courting.
Reproductions
of these old wooden spoons are readily available. But since this is a
sterling
silver spoon page, I felt obligated to show only silver spoons in the
love
"genre". Although these spoons were probably not made by the young man
they
are obvious derivatives of that tradition.

gift wrapped ribbon and bow spoon

Man and woman finials from large Dutch Servers

On the right picture notice the cherubs holding the
base of the figures

American Hand Made Love Spoons

Although you can't see the detail, many are engraved
with a person's name
or initials

Close up to show details on some of the Love Spoons

Cute handmade love spoon with a heart and
strawberries. The bowl is shell
shaped. At this point in history, strawberries were considered to be a
delicacy.
Unmarked, but I think it is sterling.

European Love Spoons

On the left is a German Souvenir spoon from the Cologne
Church (bowl) and
on the white round finial the names of a man and woman are printed. The
finial
is reproduced in the next picture on the right but the camera is not
capable
of picking up this small detail on a curved surface.

The spoon on the right of the first picture is
probably an Eastern
European marriage spoon. Some of these countries had a tradition of
visiting
the village well (see finial) on their wedding day. This spoon is
entirely
hand made, but does not have any engraving. The maker mark is very hard
to
read but looks like it might be Hebraic characters.

Dutch spoon from the 1860 -70 time period. The bowl
shows a picture of
"ladies-in-waiting" taking care of the bride-to-be. The finial is St.
George
slaying the dragon (closeup can be seen on the dragon page)

A separate exhibit of these Dutch love spoons has been
created under the
bon bon category. You can access the link from the main index.

American Hand Made Spoons

These spoons are similar to the love spoons above, except they have
conventional
looking bowls instead of heart shaped bowls. Many were given to
"sweethearts",
but others may be engraved with a city name, or have another design
element
in the bowl.

This lovely large art nuevo heart bowl server spoon
has extensive hand cutouts
in the bowl. The handle is cast. Only mark is sterling

This 4-leaf clover spoon with a heart shaped bowl
probably sums up a young
man's intention upon presenting it to his betrothed

A twisty vine handle with an applied leaf and grape
cluster. The bowl is
engraved to "Rhoda"